indonesianfolktalesfandomcom-20200214-history
The Origin of Lake Toba
Lake Toba 'is the largest lake in Indonesia and South East Asia. It is located in North Sumatera province of Indonesia. On the center of Lake Toba lies Samosir Island, which is the homeland of the Batak People. 'The Origin of Lake Toba Once upon a time there was a young farmer whose name was Toba He lived in a valley which land was fertile, therefore he was able to support his life by the crops he grew although he was not a rich man. One day, he felt like he wanted to eat fish so he went fishing at a river not far from his house. The river was usually rich with fish, but on that strange day he did not catch any fish for a long time, so he decided to just go home. Just as he was preparing to leave, his rod and line still in the water caught a big fish. As he lifted the fish, it suddenly talked. The fish cried and begged him to release it. Surprised to see a talking fish, he released it to the river, but suddenly the fish transformed into beautiful young woman. The young woman said that she was actually a princess cursed to be a fish. She thanked the young farmer for breaking her curse and to show her gratitude, she was willing to be his wife under the condition that the farmer should not tell anybody about her being a fish once or a terrible disaster would be fallen on him. So the farmer and the woman got married and after a while the woman gave birth to a baby boy. The boy grew up to be a child of great appetite. He was always hungry and would eat all the food at the table and would not even leave any food for his parents to eat. One day the boy was asked to bring food to his father who was working on the field. But on the way, the boy ate up the food he carried. At the field, his father was very hungry and tired after working, but he found out there was no food left for him to eat. This made the farmer lost his temper and in anger, he hit the boy and called him a son of the fish. Crying, the boy ran home and asked his mother if he really was a son of a fish. Shocked and sad to hear that, his mother told the boy to climb to the hill near their house and to climb to the top of the tallest tree. She herself hurried up to the river where he met the young farmer the first time and disappeared. The sky turned black and thunder and lightning roared and heavy rain fell onto the valley. The rain was so hard and so long that the valley started to flood. The water got higher and higher until the valley was no more. It had turned into a lake. People named the lake after the farmer, Toba. The hill became an island in the middle of the lake, and it was named Samosir Island. The son was believed to be the ancestor of Batak People of North Sumatera. category: Creation tales